# Does price influence the taste of wine?



## urthshu (Aug 23, 2007)

http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/01/price-influence.html

Maybe so.


> Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that's true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it's exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.
> 
> Specifically, the researchers found that with the higher priced wines, more blood and oxygen is sent to a part of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, whose activity reflects pleasure. Brain scanning using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) showed evidence for the researchers' hypothesis that "changes in the price of a product can influence neural computations associated with experienced pleasantness," they said.


Any thoughts? :mn


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## Mark C (Sep 19, 2007)

I'm a skeptic. Same with some of the wine tricks/studies Moki posted over in his blind taste challenge (specifically the white wine w/ red food dye confusing the majority of the critics). I'm by no means a wine expert, so I'm also by no means a wine snob. I like to think I'll give anything a fair chance, and I don't think I'm influenced by the price. In fact, I'd like to think I'd be able to notice the two wines were the same, or at least similar enough that I'd be partial to the 'cheaper' bottle.

As an example, on Xmas Eve my family had a huge seafood dinner. We opened two different Italian white wines to start with. One of them was average, the other was a little less impressive. When the average wine was empty, my Dad handed me a second identical bottle to open. As soon as I tasted it I knew it was not the same wine. I asked him if he gave me the right bottle, he did, so I pulled the old one out of the trash to compare. Turns out they were the same wine, but different vintages by 1 yr, and the new one was a 'reserve' wine. He later admitted to paying a much higher price for the better bottle, but chalked it up as a register mistake and never bothered to sort it out. The moral of this story, I thought I was drinking the same wine, and it was plainly obvious to me that it was not at all the same, even though it came from the same vineyard, same winemaker, just a different year. Given that scenario, I'd like to think I'm personally open-minded enough to judge a wine as a wine, regardless of price tag (unless we're talking 'value').


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## macjoe53 (Jul 8, 2007)

Mark C said:


> I'm a skeptic. Same with some of the wine tricks/studies Moki posted over in his blind taste challenge (specifically the white wine w/ red food dye confusing the majority of the critics). I'm by no means a wine expert, so I'm also by no means a wine snob. I like to think I'll give anything a fair chance, and I don't think I'm influenced by the price. In fact, I'd like to think I'd be able to notice the two wines were the same, or at least similar enough that I'd be partial to the 'cheaper' bottle.
> 
> As an example, on Xmas Eve my family had a huge seafood dinner. We opened two different Italian white wines to start with. One of them was average, the other was a little less impressive. When the average wine was empty, my Dad handed me a second identical bottle to open. As soon as I tasted it I knew it was not the same wine. I asked him if he gave me the right bottle, he did, so I pulled the old one out of the trash to compare. Turns out they were the same wine, but different vintages by 1 yr, and the new one was a 'reserve' wine. He later admitted to paying a much higher price for the better bottle, but chalked it up as a register mistake and never bothered to sort it out. The moral of this story, I thought I was drinking the same wine, and it was plainly obvious to me that it was not at all the same, even though it came from the same vineyard, same winemaker, just a different year. Given that scenario, I'd like to think I'm personally open-minded enough to judge a wine as a wine, regardless of price tag (unless we're talking 'value').


I'm not a wine snob either. I've found that I don't like some of the more expensive wines as much as I don't like the el cheapos - just for different reasons. One thing I have learned about wines that the vintage years do make a difference in how the "same" wine taste because the grapes will vary from year to year based on environmental conditions such as day/night temperature variance, rainfall amount, etc. These conditions affect the characteristics of the grapes and while they may be the same variety there may be a subtle taste difference.

As for people being fooled by the price tag, I've always believed that a lot of people just assume higher price= higher quality/better taste. This isn't always true.


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## Corona Gigante-cl (Sep 8, 2005)

I was pretty skeptical about the conclusions people are drawing from this research, in particular, I'd like to know more about the research subjects and how much experience they had of wine drinking.

"Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles."


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## JohnnyFlake (May 31, 2006)

I don't give a hoot about the study!

However, in answer to the question, YES!

IMHO, people who understand wine and drink it on a fairly regular bases, are not effected by price. They know what a good $8 bottle of wine is, and they also know what a not so good $25 or $50 bottle of is. For the majority of people who drink wine occasionally, or those that want to impress others, they are very often swayed by the price of the wine, as to whether it taste good or not so good !


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## joed (Nov 12, 2005)

JohnnyFlake said:


> I don't give a hoot about the study!
> 
> However, in answer to the question, YES!
> 
> IMHO, people who understand wine and drink it on a fairly regular bases, are not effected by price. They know what a good $8 bottle of wine is, and they also know what a not so good $25 or $50 bottle of is. For the majority of people who drink wine occasionally, or those that want to impress others, they are very often swayed by the price of the wine, as to whether it taste good or not so good !


the interesting part of the study is that they observed the increased brain activity when they changed the price on the same wine - so, the taste of the wine didn't have anything to do with the reaction.

So, to bring it home =

I know that you have heard that the 1492 cigars are pretty good - at $35,000 for a cab of 50 they should be - right - well I have some nice petite coronas that I could sell you for $725 a stick if you want something you will enjoy more than a 1492!


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## Demented (Nov 7, 2006)

To someone with a refined or an educated pallet, more than likely not.

The shape, thickness, rim style (rolled or ground smooth) and material (crystal or glass), all affect the way wine taste.

In a blind tasting, the same wines where served in stemware of the same shape and size for each of the wines, the quality of the glasses was different. The tasters didn’t know this tasting was not about the wine but the glass.

All judges thought the wine served in the higher quality stemware was of better quality then the same wine served in the lesser.


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## jagmqt (Feb 22, 2007)

Certainly I think price influences the taste of wine...

If the price is too high, I don't get to taste the wine!

jag


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## atlacatl (Sep 18, 2006)

Not to me 'cause I only drink the cheap stuff.


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## Demented (Nov 7, 2006)

jagmqt said:


> Certainly I think price influences the taste of wine...
> 
> If the price is too high, I don't get to taste the wine!
> 
> jag


LOL


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## nubbin_left (Dec 17, 2007)

JohnnyFlake said:


> I don't give a hoot about the study!
> 
> However, in answer to the question, YES!
> 
> IMHO, people who understand wine and drink it on a fairly regular bases, are not effected by price. They know what a good $8 bottle of wine is, and they also know what a not so good $25 or $50 bottle of is. For the majority of people who drink wine occasionally, or those that want to impress others, they are very often swayed by the price of the wine, as to whether it taste good or not so good !


I completely agree. I've had $12 bottles of wine that were fantastic and been sorely disappointed with a $75 bottle of wine.

Some labels worth the smaller price tag IMHO:

Columbia Vineyard
Chateau Saint Michelle
Yellow Tail (more tannic than the others; Australian, which isn't known for smooth finishes)

There are more, like Columbia Crest or Kendall Jackson, but that's just my :2


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## nubbin_left (Dec 17, 2007)

Mark C said:


> I'm a skeptic. Same with some of the wine tricks/studies Moki posted over in his blind taste challenge (specifically the white wine w/ red food dye confusing the majority of the critics).


Wow. I'm no expert, but I'd like to think I could tell the difference between white and red and not be fooled by food coloring. Hmmm. :tpd:


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## urthshu (Aug 23, 2007)

Thanks for the feedback.

One of the first things that came to mind when I read it was: The well-known Placebo Effect.

We don't know how they did the study, but if you've got an authority figure proffering wines, saying "OK now how about this _fifty dollar wine_? Better than the cheapo?" I've got to think that there's some crossover going on.

Anyway, there was no controlling for placebo effect, so far as I could tell. Would it be any different if a hobo was offering you Cristal vs. Boone's Farm? Well, yes.....


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## croatan (Mar 23, 2005)

The mind is an amazing thing. Also amazing is what some people will do to avoid what they think might make them look foolish (e.g. "If I say I like this $15 bottle of wine more than the $50 bottle of wine, they're going to know I don't know what I'm talking about; therefore, I'm going to say I like the $50 bottle better"). 

In PPPs, I've seen people oooh and aaah over a cigar because it's old and they think it must be great because it's old and expensive. When I've tasted the same cigar, I've thought it was stored improperly and tasted mostly of musty cardboard. Who knows? Maybe they liked that flavor. Or maybe it's I who have the palate of a billy goat. Beats me. I do love blind tastings for that reason, though. I've done many with wines, scotches, and cigars. They're fun and sometimes you even learn something.


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## Mark C (Sep 19, 2007)

nubbin_left said:


> Columbia Vineyard
> Chateau Saint Michelle
> Yellow Tail (more tannic than the others; Australian, which isn't known for smooth finishes)


Score another one for 'the subjectivity of taste'. For the price, I'm a fan of those 3 wineries, my wife LOVES Yellow Tail. But I find the Yellow Tail VERY smooth and not very tannic at all, particularly the Shiraz but the other reds as well, and I was under the assumption that was a characteristic of Australian wines - very fruit-forward, low tannins, made to drink young, etc.


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## mosesbotbol (Sep 21, 2005)

I've seen people prefer a $40 bottle of Stag's Laep to an '82 Mouton or a '62 La Tache... I was at a Chirstmas party and luckily for us, one chap was pounding down the house wine, while we were drinking the 60's Barolos... He just did not like the old taste and did not see what the hoopla was about.

Price, vintage, and house do affect one's perception and also sets the expectation. Robert Parker does not taste the wines blind...


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